Racial Diversity In Modeling

[Joseph26]

These are all the "black" women US Vogue have had on their covers.

http://claycane.blogspot.com/2007/02/hudson-on-vogue.html

.

Naomi Campbell in September 1989. After this being the lowest selling Vogue cover ever, Naomi would only grace the cover one more time solo in June 1993.

^ that could be the reason, why when a black woman appears on the cover the afro-american community don't buy the magazine?



btw, I didn't know that Naomi had that "record"

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Karen Alexander was so beautiful!

claycane.blogspot.com

 

[writergal28]

It is "US Vogue, the mother of all the Vogues" as you said, and as such, since in the US we have various ethnicities, why should it only represent 1 ethnicity? That doesn't sense.

Since you think people should NOT tell Vogue magazine that they want more diversity, please similarily refrain from telling me what magazine I should buy. If I want to buy it and b*tch about it, I will.

Oh by the way, I DON'T buy Vogue. I leaf through it at my local library.

Well, there are many different white ethnicities that many people in the US still identify with. If people, including white people, only saw themselves as Americans, then you won't see Scottish Americans wear their tartans at weddings and other formal occasions. You won't have Oktoberfest. You won't see Italian Americans celebrate soccer victories, etc, etc

Many models these days are Eastern European, not the white All American Girl.

 

[eternitygoddess]

^That is true.

We shouldn't just categorize all Europeans into one culture of: white.

 

[Joseph26]

if there were more people like you who accept how things are then there would be no progress or change. if people decided to continue and accept slavery in the US, then there would be no change. if people decided to accept the Nazi movement and allow millions to be persecuted by Hitler...

wow, such a drama get real, if Vogue covers with black women don't sell well nothing is going to change.

 

[Bella_Lass334]

i get the feeling a lot of people who don't agree with naomi are just playing devil's advocate...

 

[bismarck]

i get the feeling a lot of people who don't agree with naomi are just playing devil's advocate...

what do you mean?

 

[carioca]

wow, such a drama get real, if Vogue covers with black women don't sell well nothing is going to change.

you honestly think that if there weren't people to stand up against something they feel is wrong (such as Naomi did) then things would be the way there are now?

and about the covers and the low sales with black women on the cover, it just goes to show that people aren't accepting. that's the point that people were trying to make that we need to broaden the standard of beauty and by doing so, show and represent other races.

are u really expecting the hip-hop issue? the Bling-Bling Issue? with 50 CENT and Lil Kim on the cover modeling Chanel clothes?

oh god the more you post, the more ignorant you sound, so i won't even deal with you. obviously we aren't going to agree any further, you seem to like how it is and others don't. i'm just really sorry that you, being a Mexican, don't feel that a change should be implemented. but it's your choice i give up.

 

[Bella_Lass334]

what do you mean?

i mean that some people are just disagreeing for the sake of the disagreeing. they just want to go against the grain. something needs to be done to change the status quo. it's indirectly sending a message that all models that are black, mexican, middle eastern, or any other ethnicity that isn't caucasian, is there as a token, just to be politically correct, and not because the industry truly appreicates their beauty.

 

[Joseph26]

you honestly think that if there weren't people to stand up against something they feel is wrong (such as Naomi did) then things would be the way there are now?

it's the same thing, in 1992 Naomi "leaded" an association of Black models against the same thing and didnt happen anything except Naomi attacking Tyra Banks and Brandi Quiñones. Naomi hasn't done anything, period.

i'm just really sorry that you, being a Mexican, don't feel that a change should be implemented. but it's your choice i give up.

excuse but my ego is no that great as to think that a change should be implemented, I don't expect mexican/latin women on the Vogue cover,I respect the work of others, it's part of my education.

 

[Bella_Lass334]

^so what? just because naomi attacked tyra that means that all other black models, should they gain success, will do the same thing? all efforts to help black models will never work because of this incident?

 

[Acid]

and about the covers and the low sales with black women on the cover, it just goes to show that people aren't accepting.

i think you are missing the point. there is a difference between acceptance and appeal. just because something doesnt appeal to somebody does not mean that they do not accept it.

and of corse vogue looks at itself from a financial and business point of view. it has to sell in order to make targets, to get those advertisers who pay a fortune. if a black model isnt selling the magazine, it will untimately cause the magazine to fail.

they have to put something out there that is going to appeal to enough people to make the curculation a constant figure or there abouts. and if that means using a white woman as oposed to a black woman then that is what they have to do.

 

[fouroclock]

excuse but my ego is no that great as to think that a change should be implemented, I don't expect mexican/latin women on the Vogue cover.

Hegemony - in imperial terms, a system in which the colonial object becomes coerced, through direct and indirect domination, to submit to their own oppression.

One black cover a year. It can represent less than the black population in America (1/12 covers = 8.3%. Black population in America = 12% acc wiki). It can also represent a plunge in sales, for the naysayers. But I really don't think Conde Nast needs the money.

Or hegemony can be used for change. If Vogue puts more black people in the cover, eventually people will start to buy it. And it also depends on the popularity fo the person, not odf the popularity of her skin colour. A black superstar will garner more sales than a white starlet. And when it comes to "white is not a race," they can always write an article about the cover girl of her Russian roots. That's still diversity.

 

[mellowdrama]

Caroline St. Domingue by Jean Paul Goude (Grace Jones' hubby). May 1982. Photo courtesy eBay.com. Fetish or celebration?

 

[LeBelAge]

Well, there are many different white ethnicities that many people in the US still identify with. If people, including white people, only saw themselves as Americans, then you won't see Scottish Americans wear their tartans at weddings and other formal occasions. You won't have Oktoberfest. You won't see Italian Americans celebrate soccer victories, etc, etc

Many models these days are Eastern European, not the white All American Girl.

I know that. However, the various white ethnicities are still broadly viewed as "white". When the average person peeks at a cover of Vogue and sees a white model, she may not know for certain or even care if the model is Scottish, Italian, Irish, white South African, Eastern European, or what have you. She sees a white person and that's that. If you're not white, you are the "other", a person who gets to have a cover once in a blue moon.

 

[carioca]

i think you are missing the point. there is a difference between acceptance and appeal. just because something doesnt appeal to somebody does not mean that they do not accept it.

and of corse vogue looks at itself from a financial and business point of view. it has to sell in order to make targets, to get those advertisers who pay a fortune. if a black model isnt selling the magazine, it will untimately cause the magazine to fail.

they have to put something out there that is going to appeal to enough people to make the curculation a constant figure or there abouts. and if that means using a white woman as oposed to a black woman then that is what they have to do.

yes, i understand that Vogue has to sell magazines to still be in circulation. and what you said about appealing to people is right. yes they have to appeal to people, but what i'm trying to raise, is what makes a Caucasian model more appealing than a model of a minority ethnicity? the reason why Caucasian models seem to be more appealing and therefore sell more magazines, is because we have been bombarded and shown countless times that a Caucasian woman is that pinnacle standard of perfection. that's why you see so many nose jobs and eye plastic surgery in asia because they want to have more "european features." if we were shown through mass media that a woman who isn't caucasian can be seen as beautiful enough to be on a high profile fashion magazine then it would open people's eyes more to accepting different types of beauty, and then the magazines won't have that problem of ethnic women not being as appealing as a caucasian model.

 

[Zen]

could you please post a picture of how a black woman should be featured on the cover? I'm really curious.

HOW you ask? How should a black woman be featured on the cover?Tastefully I hope, without making her look trashy or making her look like a prostitude. Perhaps she's wearing a beautiful Chanel or Armani couture embellishing her with jewlery from Bvlgari. That's how a "black" woman should be featured on the US Vogue along with all other ethnically beautiful women that are out there. Or are you really asking what should be the correct standard look to be a "black" woman? Isn't that what your really asking? Well you know what, I'm not going to reply, because this thread isn't about you, it's about Naomi and Vogue.

 

[kimair]

wow, such a drama get real, if Vogue covers with black women don't sell well nothing is going to change.

vogue covers with white women don't sell well either...
the marie antoinette cover with kirsten dunst was one of the worse selling september issues ever, and the feb. 2006 issue (with drew barrymore) was the second worse seller of the year...

by comparison, allure's best selling issue of 2006 was eva longoria, and cosmo's best seller was beyonce knowles...

could you please post a picture of how a black woman should be featured on the cover? I'm really curious.

you just posted one...

or how about this one?

fashion-iconography.net

 

[iluvjeisa]

As fouroclock stated, the percentage of black people in the US is 12%, the average number of black cover subjects is 8-9%. But, of course, Vogue is supposedly for the well-to-do person, or the person who aspires to be well to do. I don't know the distribution of wealth over ethnicities, but it is probably safe to assume that the Caucasian population will have a higher average income. This is probably at the core of the slight underrepresentation of black cover subjects - and the enormous underrepresentation of black editorial subjects. The magazine is paid for by advertisers hoping to sell clothes to the wealthy - people probably identify more with people they have any hope of looking like (however wishful that thought might be).

Of course, note that I'm not saying there aren't wealthy African Americans....I'm talking statistics here, which is what you can be sure a business would do, as well.

 

[fouroclock]

As fouroclock stated, the percentage of black people in the US is 12%, the average number of black cover subjects is 8-9%.

To clarify I tried to engender what the stats would be like if they put one black cover out a year. Rough estimates in Zen's link show that they're publishing covers with black women once every 2 or 2.5 years?

 

[electricladyland]

Caroline St. Domingue by Jean Paul Goude (Grace Jones' hubby). May 1982. Photo courtesy eBay.com. Fetish or celebration?

wow, i'm having a hottentot venus flashback. i'd rather not have a cover than have that one.